In the mad world of art, no one can tell if the most expensive painting is a genuine master

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Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi on show at Christies' Kings Street.Credit:
Geoff Pugh for the Telegraph

In New York last November, a painting of Christ entitled the Salvator Mundi was sold as a Leonardo da Vinci for $450 million (£319 million), making it by far the most expensive painting in the world. In 1958 it was sold in very poor condition as by one of Leonardo’s pupils, Boltraffio, for £45. Everything about this picture and its history is curious. It was only identified as by Leonardo in 2011 by the National Gallery, which featured it as the surprise item in a major exhibition of the artist. Almost immediately, four leading Leonardo scholars said that it could not be his work, as happened again last November when a former Metropolitan Museum director joined the chorus.